NC DOT liable after pedestrian struck in Chapel Hill crosswalk

Action: Negligence

Injuries alleged: Orbital, nasal, lumbar spine, shoulder, pelvis, tibula, and fibula fractures and post-concussive syndrome

Case name: Huggins v. North Carolina Department of Transportation

Case no.: I.C. No. TA-30547

Judge: Senior Deputy Commissioner Robert Harris of the Industrial Commission

Amount: $850,000

Date: April 7, 2025 (Senior Deputy Commissioner Harris) and Oct. 29, 2025 (Full commission)

Attorneys: Ryan Oxendine of Oxendine & Associates and Kristen Beightol of Edwards Beightol, both in Raleigh (for the plaintiff)

A pedestrian struck by a vehicle while crossing Manning Drive at its intersection with Hibbard/Emergency Room Drive in Chapel Hill in December 2019 has been awarded $850,000 plus costs against the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The plaintiff was crossing in a marked crosswalk after receiving the “walk” signal when she was struck by a driver turning left from Hibbard/Emergency Room Drive. The driver had received a green light simultaneously with the pedestrian walk signal — a timing configuration that, had a Lead Pedestrian Interval been in place, would have given pedestrians a three-to-five second head start before motorists received the green, making pedestrians more visible to turning drivers. No such interval was in place at the time.

Senior Deputy Commissioner Harris initially found in an April 2025 decision that NC DOT breached its duty of reasonable care by failing to implement the Lead Pedestrian Interval, that the plaintiff was not negligent and that the driver’s negligence did not supersede NC DOT’s liability. The Full Commission affirmed on October 29, 2025, with Commissioner Wanda Blanche Taylor writing that the driver’s actions were foreseeable and that the plaintiff would not have been struck but for NC DOT’s negligence. Commissioners Gillen and Goodman concurred.

NC DOT was ordered to pay $850,000 to the plaintiff plus $9,085.75 in costs to plaintiff’s counsel. NC DOT did not appeal further.